Peanut Butter Cookies

I've learned a thing or two over the years about bringing treats to my kid's school parties. Number one is that the amount of hours you spend slaving over some confectionary masterpiece bears no relation to how quickly it will be gobbled up by the little imps. My first eye-opening experience was my oldest son's kindergarten Halloween party, when I took decorated sugar cookies. They were adorable (if I do say so myself). Six different designs, all painstakingly outlined and filled with a modified royal icing. I even hand-cut the Frankenstein cookies, since I didn't own the cutter. Probably half a dozen colors of icing had to be mixed.

As I watched the children dig into their party plates, I was baffled when they not only didn't praise the heavens above for being blessed with the beautiful treats that were my cookies, but many kids didn't even touch them! No, they were too busy munching on rice krispy treats and store-bought chocolate chip cookies. Ouch!


Since then, I've stopped trying to impress the kids with beautifully decorated snacks. I've come to realize that you can't go wrong with either brownies, chocolate chip cookies, or cupcakes decorated with lots of fluffy, colorful icing.


I broke my own rule-of-thumb with these peanut butter cookies. They were for a Grandparents Dessert that was held at my son's school. I didn't have any chocolate chips left, but I figured the gramps and grannies would like these cookies, at least.

This is my grandma's recipe and they were my grandpa's favorite cookie. He liked them crunchy for dipping in his coffee. I like them soft. Either way, they are delicious.


Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 C. butter
1/2 C. peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C. granulated sugar
1/2 C. brown sugar, packed
1-1/2 C. all-purpose flour

Cream butter and peanut butter. Add sugars, egg, and vanilla and beat until well mixed. Add flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix just until blended.

Roll into small balls, press tops with a fork dipped in sugar.


Bake 13 minutes at 350 degrees farenheit for soft cookies, or 20 minutes for crunchy cookies.